Habits and medicinal value of spring water fish (Southern Creek Cave Fish)

Spring fish (Pseudogyrincheilus procheilus) belongs to the order Cypriniformes, family Cyprinidae, subfamily Pseudogyrincheilus, and spring fish genus. Commonly known as: spring water fish, oil fish.

The body is long, the front part is round, the back part is slightly flattened laterally, the front part of the abdomen is flat, and the back of the head is arc-shaped. The muzzle is round and blunt; the cleft is slightly triangular, and the upper and lower lips are connected at the corners of the mouth. There are many neatly arranged small horny protrusions on the lips; the lips are rolled into the mouth. When the mouth is opened, the lips are everted and expanded into a trumpet shape. This is attached to other objects. The retrolabial sulcus is limited to the corners of the mouth. There are 2 pairs of barbels, the snout is longer and the jaw barbels are short. The eyes are small and located slightly higher on the side of the head. The scales are medium-large, and the scales on the abdomen are smaller and hidden under the skin. The dorsal fin has no spines. The back of the body is gray-black, the abdomen is gray-white, and each fin is slightly black; most of the scales on the side of the body have black edges, and the black patches from behind the gill holes to in front of the pectoral fins are thicker, so they form a large black spot.

Spring fish inhabit the middle and lower layers of waters with relatively high river speeds in southern my country. They usually like to live in mountain streams and caves with flowing water, as well as places with spring sources in rivers. They often use their mouths to scrape attached animals, plants and other organic matter on the rocks at the bottom of rivers. They rarely enter still water bodies with sludge in the ground. During the reproductive season, they swim upstream to lay eggs. Generally, they reach sexual maturity when they weigh 1-1.5 kilograms. The egg-laying time is about March to April, and the eggs are laid in stone crevices or caves.

Spring fish are distributed in the main trunk and tributaries of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the middle and upper reaches of the Xijiang River in the Pearl River system.

Spring water fish is a common edible fish in Sichuan, Guangxi and Yunnan. The growth rate is slow, the common one is about 0.5-1 kg, and the largest individual is about 3.5-4 kg. The output is not large, but its meat is tender, delicious and rich in fat, making it an edible treasure. Fresh meat is used for medicinal purposes. It has the effects of replenishing vitality and stopping bleeding. It is mainly used to treat diarrhea, vomiting blood, metrorrhagia and other diseases.

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